Rep. Jim Banks Shreds Speaker Pelosi After He Was Rejected From Jan. 6 Panel
Michael Cantrell
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Rep. Jim Banks was none too pleased with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after she rejected his nomination to the special congressional panel that will be investigating the Capitol riot that happened back on January 6th.
“It really made me angry. I served my country in Afghanistan and she is saying that I’m not up to playing a serious role on this Jan. 6 committee,” Banks went on to tell the New York Post on Wednesday.
“But it just goes to show all along this was never a serious effort on their part, it’s all a political witch hunt. They want to make this all about Donald Trump, dragging Republican members of Congress through the mud and attacking 75 million people that voted for Donald Trump,” Banks continued.
On Wednesday, Pelosi rejected two of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) proposed Republican members for the committee, Banks and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).
“With respect for the integrity of the investigation, with an insistence on the truth and with concern about statements made and actions taken by these members, I must reject the recommendations of Representatives Banks and Jordan,” Speaker Pelosi stated.
In response, McCarthy said he would pull all five of his Republican picks for the select committee unless Pelosi reversed course and seats all five. The minority leader also announced that the GOP will conduct its own investigation into the events of January 6, when a mob broke through security and marauded through the U.S. Capitol.
“This represents an egregious abuse of power and will irreparably damage this institution,” McCarthy went on to say in a statement concerning the issue. “Denying the voices of members who have served in the military and law enforcement, as well as leaders of standing committees, has made it undeniable that this panel has lost all legitimacy and credibility and shows the Speaker is more interested in playing politics than seeking the truth.”
Earlier this month, Pelosi announced eight picks for the committee including one Republican, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), one of former President Trump’s most vocal critics. McCarthy said at the time that it would be “unprecedented” for Cheney to keep her committee assignments after her decision to accept Pelosi’s nomination.
Banks said he had begun “digging into the real questions that nobody’s asked,” going on to add, , “Democrats don’t want to answer to on why the Capitol was vulnerable on January 6 when we had real intelligence three weeks before and we didn’t do anything to prepare for it.”
One of the reasons the Indiana Republican gave for why Democrats might be wanting to avoid investigating certain aspects of the violence that erupted on Jan. 6 is because Pelosi might have been involved in the delay of the deployment of the National Guard, something that Pelosi’s office has denied.
“Democrats don’t want to talk about it because at the end of the day, the higher up the food chain you get, the closer to Nancy Pelosi you get, and that spooked Nancy Pelosi and that’s why she rejected Jim Jordan and me,” Banks said during his interview with the Post.
“We’re not giving up. These are questions that deserve answers and we’re still members of Congress who can demand answers to serious questions that the Democrats, so far, have not given any attention to,” Banks concluded.
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